moon river
【Song of the Same Heart】4
This new and unknown world is full of excitement and challenges. The temptation to revisit old dreams makes us feel as heroic as pawns crossing the river.
Moon River! Wider than a mile.
One day I will cross over to meet you.
ah! Dreamer! Heartbreaker!
No matter where you go, I will go with you.
Two castaways went to explore the world,
There is so much to see.
We chase the end of the same rainbow,
Waiting around the bend.
my childhood friend,
Just like the Moon River and me...
Can't wait to input the CD sent by Zhongxing from Taiwan into the computer. Beautiful photos appeared on the screen. The Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe are clearly back in front of you. There is a group photo of the four of us in front of the splendid golden gate of the Palace of Versailles; arms around each other, just like the one taken in the photo studio in high school. The colors are black and white, and the hair changes from clear noodles to mom-style, but the same smile remains the same.
Reconnect
We were a classmate of a girl from the Xinlian Branch. We were assigned to a naughty charity class. We were not tall and the seats were close to each other. We were inseparable every day and spent our youthful years together. The good thing is that the high school exams were divided into two different schools, and they even made an appointment to watch a movie on the weekend.
There were no video games back then. The most popular places to visit are Bitan, Yangmingshan and Yuanhuan. The friendship between the four has always been maintained like this. The living standard in the 1960s was not as good as it is now, but the happiness brought by Yangchun Noodles and New Nanyang was not inferior. After college, we divided things. Three of them went abroad and settled in different corners of the New World.
For a while, everyone was busy working hard; an occasional phone call reconnected the almost broken friendship. In the past ten years, as my children have grown up, they have seen each other more frequently, but most of them have been missing one or the other. I don't deny my luck. I have three handkerchiefs in my life, and I can tell them the ups and downs of life without any reservation. I don't have to keep my tears in front of them.
Last year, we talked about how we were about to reach the age of 16 years, and we wanted to achieve a feat without any regrets. We decided to travel like we did when we were kids, but self-guided. We met at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, stayed in France for four days, then took the Eurostar across the English Channel, from London to Edinburgh, then back to London, and took the same route back to Paris. I discussed this decision with Mr. Erjin, and he said:
"Do you really want to go?" He said softly.
▲They were young and innocent (front row from left: Princess Zhu, the author; back row from left: Duck, Zhongxing).
▲Today we are mature and happy (from left to center, the star, the author, Princess Zhu, and the duck).
Nothing to regret
Can a woman whose combined age is almost 240 years old do it? Among the four of us, I am the only one who knows a little bit about French. Self-guided travel requires walking a lot of distance, which is very tiring. Can my body hold up? When we were young, we did a lot of dangerous things without telling our parents. This new and unknown world was full of excitement and challenges. The temptation to revisit old dreams made us feel as heroic as pawns crossing a river. Keep telling each other that after the age of fifty, we must do things that we will not regret. After-the-fact cognition, imagination and reality are sometimes two different things. After all, there are always times in life that are uncontrollable and unpredictable.
Two months before everything started, Princess Zhu's husband was diagnosed with prostate cancer and needed surgery immediately. Hesitant. The three of us decided to keep the tickets. Even if she was absent because of this, we would happily fulfill this wish. It was not until four days before departure that her husband's condition began to stabilize and he received strong support and encouragement, so she was able to make the trip.
It took a year to get the process, air tickets, trains, and hotels sorted out. When I set off from the bus station towards New York with my backpack on my back, I realized that age and timidity are directly proportional. Thinking of his promise to the other three people, he tried his best to say "take care" in Erjin's ear, waved and walked away.
Ducks join us from Las Vegas to New York. When the plane arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport, I found Zhongxing, who had traveled all the way from Taipei to Europe. After a few big hugs, I immediately used the French language of the three-legged cat and some hand gestures to find the train bound for the center of Paris. Although the suitcase is small, it is very tiring to carry it for a long time. Princess Zhu is the weaker one among us, so I kept asking her if she wanted me to lift it for her, but she insisted on letting me admire her and took care of herself until the end.
In order to get rid of the jet lag, I insisted on not taking any rest. I took a bus or subway to the Eiffel Tower. From the Eiffel Tower to Napoleon's Tomb, I crossed the Alexandria Bridge and turned left towards the Arc de Triomphe, the center of the Champs Elysees. It was about five miles! I have a reputation for having legs of iron, and I can walk quickly without getting tired. Duck and Zhongxing's foot strength is also pretty good, but Princess Zhu doesn't like to exercise on weekdays. She lies flat on the bed every day when she comes back, with her legs stilted on the wall. I remember that Zhongxing’s family had an orange orchard on the mountain. When we went to the garden to pick oranges in junior high school, we had to take a human-powered trolley and walk on a long mountain road. Returning to her house, the four of us lay in a row on her tatami, with eight legs hanging high. I forgot that there was a difference of more than 40 years between then and now.
Very happy together
During the fourteen days, we all did the same things we did when we were kids: hanging out on the street with hooks and hands, playing Solitaire and Blackjack on the train; teasing each other with good intentions and laughing; gossiping about old stars and recalling what it was like back then. An interesting story about the English teacher’s black frog. After turning off the lights at night, time returns to the present, talking about sons, daughters and the mood of being a grandmother. Only in this moment can I feel the ruthless passage of time. We were only eleven or twelve years old when we met! In the time tunnel, we go through the joy of getting married and having children, marrying a daughter and a wife, and the pain of divorce and loss of a husband, like the flowers in autumn that wither in an instant but still live strong and upright.
This trip allowed us to regain to some extent the simple happiness that faded away with time in the past. As long as we were together, we were happy. Age has not made us give up the pursuit of our ideals. We are also very proud. During these days, just like young people, we used the subway map to find where we wanted to go; we traveled through three major European cities and stayed in bed and breakfasts; we did not complain even though our finances and age were reasonable. Take a taxi and stay in a five-star hotel.
The only luxurious time was in a famous French store with more than 200 years of history near Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. As soon as we sat down, we stared at the most expensive set menu on the menu, from the escargot appetizer, fresh oysters from Bordeaux, veal, fish steak braised in cheese, duck stuffed in red wine to pear pudding for dessert. The four French women at the next table were dumbfounded. They walked past our seats and said, "Bon Appetit!" with expressions of disbelief.
We cherished each other at the airport, but there was no sadness. When we got home, Erjin kept asking about the places we had visited, asking me to tell some interesting things, and then asked: "You guys didn't quarrel, did you?" Before setting off, he had categorically asserted that we old women would definitely quarrel. Without thinking, he replied: "Nothing!" and then hummed the old song from Moon River.